The power of community journalism

Eric Ortiz lives in the Wedge with his family. He is executive director of the Strong Mind Strong Body Foundation, a nonprofit youth and community development organization based in Minneapolis.

Healing begins with opportunities, and opportunities promote growth. 

That's why we developed the Youth Community Journalism Institute at the Strong Mind Strong Body Foundation. We want to provide equitable access to journalism opportunities.

We have seen growth already.

In March, we launched a journalism afterschool program with middle school students (6th-8th) at Ella Baker School in Minneapolis. We taught them the fundamentals of community journalism and started an online newspaper called Ella Baker News. 

This summer, some of the students from Ella Baker participated in a six-week, paid youth community journalism microinternship at SPEAK MPLS, a community media center in Minneapolis. The program was led by the Youth Community Journalism Institute, in collaboration with Jóvenes de Salud at Carmen Robles and Associates LLC. We started with seven students (ages 12-15) and finished with nine from five different schools in and around Minneapolis. Over half of the students spoke Spanish and English.

Our youth community journalists did field reporting at local places such as Mercado Central, Centro Guzman, Target Field (home of the Minnesota Twins), on the streets with community members in south Minneapolis near downtown, with the executive director of Clean Elections Minnesota, at Centro Guadalupano, and at the Minnesota State Capitol interviewing Attorney General Keith Ellison and House Rep. Maria Isa Peréz-Vega (District 65B).

The program culminated with youth producing a live, 90-minute community news show called "Youth Community Journalism." The show was broadcast on Minneapolis public access TV channel 75 on Comcast and live-streamed on Facebook.

The first episode was "Problems and Solutions in Minneapolis." The show covered many topics in English and Spanish with field reports, in-studio guest interviews, and pre-produced segments.

Our youth community journalism team did a wonderful job. The show wasn't perfect. But the imperfections are how we all learn.

Community journalists at any age can learn by doing.

Students want more journalism opportunities and more students to join the program.

The National Association of Hispanic Journalists (NAHJ) offered free NAHJ membership for one year to all nine students in our program.

One parent described the program as a "vocational, fun and useful activity."

This family recently came to the United States from Venezuela, and, her son, a 15-year-old student, just completed his first year in the U.S. at Edison High School in Minneapolis. During our summer journalism boot camp, the student worked on his English and spoke Spanish to community members. He wants to continue with our community journalism program during the school year. His mother was a journalist in Venezuela, and we plan to help her find opportunities to continue practicing journalism in the U.S.

We will continue producing the "Youth Community Journalism" TV show monthly with youth. We also will have monthly community events, based on issues discussed on the show, to build community and create solutions.

Our first community event is Aug. 17 at Cedar Field Park in Minneapolis. It is a community solutions festival, and we have partnered with the Star Tribune to have a news kiosk that delivers and gathers community news at the festival.

This summer, in addition to our youth community journalism microinternship, we taught a journalism class with 2nd-6th grade students at a summer camp at Centro Guadalupano, a nonprofit community organization that provides educational programs and human services to immigrant and refugee families and the economically disadvantaged.

The journalism class was only one week and four days of classes with English- and Spanish-speaking students. Three groups of students (second and third graders, fourth and fifth graders, and sixth graders) created a print community newspaper. Each student wrote a story for the paper. Many students and parents said journalism was their favorite class at the camp. 

This is the power of community journalism. This is the power of youth. This is the power of youth putting community journalism into action.

Our plan is to get youth journalism, literacy, and media literacy programs in K-12 schools across Minnesota, then America. We want to bring together youth journalism programs, educators, and advocates to spark a nationwide Journalism for All movement that provides equitable access to journalism opportunities for youth in more languages. 

We are working on organizing a Journalism for All Day of Action at the Minnesota State Capitol in October.

Our mission is to empower youth and strengthen communities through journalism.

We want to prepare more young people for possible careers in community media, empower new storytellers to shape their community’s narrative, create more informed and engaged citizens, and make leaders and systems more accountable to their communities.

With our Youth Community Journalism Institute, we can give youth the training, tools, resources, and support they need to use journalism as a vehicle for change and social good.

Everyone has a voice. Every voice should have the opportunity to be heard.

We can provide that opportunity.

Eric Ortiz lives in the Wedge with his family. He is executive director of the Strong Mind Strong Body Foundation, a nonprofit youth and community development organization based in Minneapolis.